President Jacob Zuma has called for diplomatic relations with India to be kept in mind when the Waterkloof wedding plane issue was considered.

Zuma said the Indian High Commission could not be blamed.

He said the Indian High Commission had made an application referring to their request to land at Waterkloof Air Force Base, but the application was wrongly handled. Zuma called for consideration of the fact that the Guptas were of another country and their issues had to be handled with understanding.

The Cabinet on Friday announced a seven-day investigation into the debacle and five officials have been put on special leave or suspended.

In a statement, the Gupta family said it was “flabbergasted” by the publicity surrounding the wedding of Vega Gupta and Aakash Jahajgarhia at Sun City last week, and distanced itself from alleged incidents of racism and impropriety at the nuptials.

The family has also issued “a general apology to all affected, including the South African and Indian governments, the local authorities, the South African public and especially our guests” following an outcry after wedding guests from India landed at Waterkoof.

“We also regret any incidents at the Sun City venue of which the family was unaware. The allegations of racism regarding the staff are definitely untrue. If there was an isolated incident involving any of our guests, the Gupta family apologies unreservedly to any party affected.

“Vega and Aakash were in fact given a spontaneous send-off by the largely black service staff, reducing the family to tears of appreciation,” the family said, expressing surprise at reports of racism by guests against black staff at Sun City.

The family also set the record straight on the reports of “racism and an incident of attempted sexual advancement” by stating that the family was not involved in the recruitment of any staff.

“In fact, months before the event, it was brought to our attention that a service provider had advertised for white butlers. We immediately corrected that approach as our commitment to employment equity goes beyond legal requirements towards our moral obligation. This applies to both our business and private lives.”

Sun City MD Richard Hawkins said he had not received any complaints of racism from his staff. “It’s all been coming through third parties and we have not received any complaints from staff.

“Any issues of racism would be investigated in full if they come through,” Hawkins said.

The Gupta statement added: “Sun City management were left with the responsibility to deploy staff as required. The issue of bodyguards and toothbrushes etc is rejected with the contempt it deserves. It smacks of mischief-making of the worst order.”

On the alleged attempted sexual advances by guest towards a masseuse at the resort, it said: “As a family, we are obviously hugely upset by the incident. We take matters of this nature very seriously. For the record, it should be noted that guest directly requested the service from the hotel’s outsourced spa.” 

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